Uganda’s government said Sunday it would drop a military trial against opposition figurehead Kizza Besigye, urging him to give up his hunger strike in jail, a minister said.
The pledge was promptly rejected as “suspicious” by Besigye’s wife, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima.
Besigye, a former ally turned rival of longtime President Yoweri Museveni, went on a hunger strike on February 10 in protest at his detention.
Charging him with treason for allegedly threatening national security, the government has vowed to try him in a military court, despite a Supreme Court ruling that such a move against a civilian is unconstitutional.
Now, however, “the government is fast-tracking the transfer of Besigye’s case from the court martial to the civil court,” Cabinet spokesperson and information minister Chris Baryomunsi told AFP.
“As a government, we are complying with the ruling of the Supreme Court.”
The minister said in an earlier message on X that he had visited Besigye in prison Sunday “in the presence of his personal doctors” and “asked him to resume taking food” pending the transfer.
The army, which has not yet commented on the announcement, had previously dismissed the Supreme Court ruling and insisted the military trial would go ahead.
Besigye appeared in court for a hearing in a separate case Friday looking frail, prompting outrage from his supporters.
Baryomunsi declined to say whether Sunday’s pledge was prompted by the outcry.
Byanyima told AFP on Sunday that she was “very worried” about her husband’s condition.
